Fingerprint recognition systems have been devised for a variety of objects concerning personal recognition, for example access control for buildings, smart cards, weapon enable/disable arrangements and computer access. Fingerprint recognition systems are easy to use, no codes will have to be remembered and no keys will have to be brought, while a high level of security is obtained.
Fingerprint sensors have previously been made as optical sensors, having optical reading sensor elements. However, these optical reading sensor elements are quite expensive, bulky and sensitive to dirt. Therefore, different types of capacitive sensor elements have been devised instead, where the capacitance between the structure of a fingerprint and corresponding sensor plates is measured.
Normally, the sensor plates, consisting of thin metal electrodes, are arranged in rows and columns, forming a sensor matrix arranged to read the structure of a fingerprint. Many types of fingerprint sensors have been developed, many of these types measure a finger capacitance between the finger and a top sensor electrode. Others types have two fixed sensor electrodes, either arranged on top of each other in different layers or between each other, between which plates there is a fixed capacitance. This capacitance is changed when the presence of the finger affects the electric field between the plates. The finger is often excited or grounded, for example by means of a conducting frame surrounding the sensor matrix, or kept at a ground level by means of a large capacitive coupling to ground.
Normally, the top part of the sensor structure comprises several conductive layers consisting of metal layers and so-called polysilicone layers having insulating dielectric layers inserted between them, where the top conductive layer constitutes the sensor electrodes. A problem for all capacitive fingerprint sensors of today is the presence of parasitic capacitors. There are always parasitic capacitors between each sensor electrode in the top layer and the lower layers. There are also parasitic capacitors between each sensor electrode in the top layer and one or more neighbouring sensor electrodes in the top layer, so-called lateral parasitic capacitors.
In many fingerprint sensors, this parasitic capacitor lies in parallel with the finger, for example when the finger and a bottom (shielding) plate are connected to each other, a common configuration. Since this parasitic capacitor can be much larger then the capacitance to the finger, it can disturb the measurement. Therefore, many different designs have been developed for capacitive fingerprint sensor elements in order to more or less eliminate the parasitic capacitors.
In the article “A 500 dpi capacitive-type CMOS fingerprint sensor with pixel-level adaptive image enhancement scheme” by Kwang Hyun Lee and Euisik Yoon, a fingerprint sensor element is described, which fingerprint sensor element measures a finger capacitance between the finger and a top sensor electrode. Between each top sensor electrode (metal 3) and an underlying conductive layer (metal 2), there is a parasitic capacitor. The underlying conductive layer is coupled to a voltage source, keeping it at a certain controllable potential Vr. Each top sensor electrode is connected to the negative input of a charge amplifier and the underlying conductive layer (metal 2) to the positive input of the charge amplifier, thus virtually connecting each top sensor electrode and the underlying conductive layer 2 to the same potential by means of the charge amplifier. in this way, this parasite capacitor is virtually eliminated.
Having a large capacitor at the input of a charge amplifier, as is the case in this article, is, however, disadvantageous concerning noise performance of the sensor element. The fact that a large parasitic capacitor at the input of a charge amplifier is disadvantageous concerning noise performance, is a previously known fact. The input capacitor is cancelled out only with regard to the signal injected from the finger electrode. But for other sources, such as amplifier noise, the parasitic capacitor has another position in the circuit and therefore another transfer function accounts.
The transfer function for amplifier noise sources, seen as a voltage source at the positive pin of the amplifier, contains the term Ctotal input/Cref. Therefore, it is beneficial for the noise performance to keep the total input capacitance, i.e. Cfinger+Cparasitic+Cref, as low as possible. Similarly, the interference noise that is injected into the negative input between Cpar and ground, via the shielding or driving metal electrode, contains the term Cpar/Cref, which implies that it is beneficial with regard to noise and interference to keep the parasitic capacitance at a low level.
Furthermore, the article discloses sensor electrodes which are not kept at the same potential, which makes the measurement of the capacitance between the finger and each sensor electrode dependant on lateral parasitic capacitances, which will vary with the current local skin condition, leading to a deteriorated fingerprint image. In other words, not only the capacitance between the finger and the sensor plate in question is measured, but also the lateral capacitances between the sensor plate in question and its neighbouring sensor plates are measured, since only the sensor plate in question is provided with a signal, while the neighbouring sensor plates are not. This results in an unreliable measurement with a reduced image resolution.
Furthermore, the article discloses a feedback capacitor which is realized using lower layers in the layer configuration of the sensor element, which is an inefficient use of the available layers.